Financial Counselors Inc. Sells 96 Shares of Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX)

Financial Counselors Inc. decreased its holdings in Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,774 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 96 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Equifax were worth $707,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Equifax by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,389,505 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,667,165,000 after buying an additional 135,009 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Equifax by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,816,186 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,415,284,000 after acquiring an additional 52,489 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Equifax by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,885,661 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $845,041,000 after purchasing an additional 29,742 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Equifax by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Cantillon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,835,102 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $467,676,000 after purchasing an additional 9,702 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Equifax by 95.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,617,574 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $412,239,000 after purchasing an additional 791,730 shares during the period. 96.20% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Equifax Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:EFX opened at $240.37 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Equifax Inc. has a one year low of $213.02 and a one year high of $309.63. The company has a market cap of $29.81 billion, a PE ratio of 49.77, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $251.43 and a 200-day moving average of $263.86.

Equifax (NYSE:EFX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The credit services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.12. Equifax had a return on equity of 19.13% and a net margin of 10.63%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Equifax Inc. will post 7.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equifax Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. Equifax’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on EFX. Wolfe Research cut shares of Equifax from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised Equifax from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Equifax in a research report on Friday, February 7th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Equifax from $335.00 to $310.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Gordon Haskett upgraded Equifax to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.56.

Equifax Profile

Equifax Inc operates as a data, analytics, and technology company. The company operates through three segments: Workforce Solutions, U.S. Information Solutions (USIS), and International. The Workforce Solutions segment offers services that enables customers to verify income, employment, educational history, criminal justice data, healthcare professional licensure, and sanctions of people in the United States; and employer customers with services that assist them in complying with and automating payroll-related and human resource management processes throughout the entire cycle of the employment relationship.